France says wing part found at Reunion is from MH370

The part, known as a flaperon, was found on the shore of the Indian Ocean island on July 29.

04 Sep 2015 06:34 GMT

The recent discovery of the flaperon has not shed any more light on the location of the crash [EPA]

The piece of wing found on the shore of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has been formally identified as part of the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The part, known as a flaperon, was found on the shore of the French-governed island on July 29 and Malaysian authorities have said paint colour and maintenance-record matches proved it came from the missing Boeing 777 aircraft.

The French prosecutor, who had until Thursday's statement been more cautious on its provenance, said a technician from Airbus Defence and Space (ADS-SAU) in Spain, which had made the part for Boeing, had formally identified one of three numbers found on the flaperon as being the serial number of the MH370 Boeing 777.

"It is therefore possible to confirm with certainty that the flaperon found on Reunion island on July 29, 2015 corresponds to the one from flight MH370," the prosecutor said in a statement.

The plane disappeared in March last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board, most of them Chinese.

The recent discovery of the flaperon, while confirming that the plane crashed into the ocean, has not shed any more light on the location of the crash.

It has also not brought investigators any closer to the crucial flight recorder that could indicate what caused the mysterious disappearance that has baffled aviation experts and given rise to myriad conspiracy theories.